Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to diagnostic systems for reciprocating machinery. More specifically, the present invention relates to monitoring systems for reciprocating compressors used in the transportation of gasses and/or liquids.
Description of Related Art
Large internal combustion engines are frequently used to drive multi-cylinder compressors and other reciprocating machines used in the transportation of fluids such as natural gas, oil, various other fossil fuels, or industrial chemicals. Particularly in the natural gas industry, large fleets of such multi-cylinder engine compressor sets may be spread out among a substantial number of wells.
Many such industries do not employ maintenance engineers full-time, as this can be costly, and the downside of this is that when a compressor failure occurs, an unscheduled shutdown is required until a maintenance engineer resolves the issue. This can lead to long downtimes, as appointments need to be scheduled and parts may need to be ordered, and in many cases this disturbs the flow of production. Unscheduled shut-downs can be drastically reduced if reciprocating machine faults are identified before a failure occurs.
Additionally, identifying and warning operators of reciprocating machinery anomalies can be a valuable tool to increase machine life. Particularly, warning operators of such problems can help to maintain high availability, reduce operating costs, and optimize capital expenditure with regard to reciprocating machinery. However, especially in fields that utilize large fleets of reciprocating machinery, plant managers and engineers responsible for compressors operating at their facilities often receive large amounts of data that is difficult to manage.
While there are a number of monitoring systems available to the compressor industry, they are generally costly to install and maintain or require specialist manpower to collect, process, and analyze data. Further, many of these monitoring systems do not include specific enough data analysis such that an experienced engineer is able to understand the nature of the fault that is likely to occur in addition to the possible future presence of a fault in general.